Syria: anatomy of the opposition

Winning international headlines July 20 was the seizure by the Free Syrian Army (FSA) of Albu Kamal, one of the three major crossings on the border with Iraq, after a brief battle. (Al-Arabiya, July 21) The FSA is linked to the Istanbul-based Syrian National Council (SNC), whose leaders this week visited the United Nations in a bid for international support. (World Policy blog, July 19) The SNC is clearly being groomed by the West, and is generally portrayed in the media as the sole leadership of the Syrian revolution. However the SNC/FSA is but one of several coalitions struggling to bring down the Assad regime.

As the FSA seized the Albu Kama crossing, Kurdish opposition groups seized the Amude and Efrin crossings on the Turkish border—winning virtually no mainstream media attention. The two major Kurdish opposition organizations in Syria, long mutually hostile, have been cooperating since July 12, when Massoud Barzani, president of Iraqi Kurdistan, brokered a pact between them at a meeting in his capital, Erbil. One of the two groups is the Kurdish National Council (KNC), which has traditionally been backed by Barzani, and whose leaders were received at the White House earlier this year. The other is the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is allied with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the insurgent army in eastern Turkey. While the two groups have established a joint council to run territory they liberate, the PKK flag has reportedly been raised over several buildings in Amude and Efrin. The PYD also barred FSA forces from entering the city of Kabani, which their fighters seized in Aleppo governorate. The PYD has declared a People's Assembly of Western Kurdistan, viewed as an embryonic government of Syrian Kurdistan. (Rudaw, July 20; Rudaw, July 17; US State Department press release, May 11)

The SNC even now officially espouses peaceful civil struggle, even as it has established a "Military Bureau" to coordinate with the FSA—ostensibly in the name of "civilian protection." The SNC claims to represent some 80% of the opposition, encompassing groups ranging from the Muslim Brotherhood to secular "local coordination committees." However, the existence of other major coalitions even within Syria's Arab majority suggests the 80% claim could be inflated.

The second biggest opposition alliance is the National Coordinating Committee for Democratic Change (NCC), made up of several left-wing groups, Kurdish organizations, and independent activists. Unlike the SNC, the NCC is based within Syria, and includes both Arabs and Kurds in its leadership. Also unlike the SNC, the NCC says it is willing to engage the regime in dialogue, on condition that the repression is halted and Assad agree to step down. The secular NCC has been especially critical of Saudi sway over the SNC.

Finally, there are numerous Sunni militant factions which, more extreme than the Muslim Brotherhood, have not sought alliance with the SNC, and seek to impose a sharia state. (DW, July 21; Syria Revolts [NCC-linked website], SNC website)

Two major ethno-religious minorities in Syria, the Alawites and the Druze, have largely remained aloof from the rebellion. Walid Jumblatt, the Lebanese Druze leader who is a bitter opponent of Assad, has publicly appealed for Druze and Alawites in Syria to join the uprising, praising three young Syrian Druze militants whose deaths were reported by opposition websites. (Daily Star, Lebanon, July 20)

Stateside commentators on the left, right and center alike all overwhelmingly view the question of Syria primarily in terms of what "we" should do—meaning the United States (that obfuscatory pronoun neatly conflating rulers and ruled). Nearly everyone either views Syria through the prism of Vietnam (the US as imperialist aggressor, Assad as Ho) or World War II (US to the rescue, Assad as Hitler). Making the question exclusively about the US is deeply insulting the Syrian people and their struggle for freedom.

Maybe what "we" should be doing—meaning progressives and anti-war forces in the US—is establishing contact with the National Coordinating Committee for Democratic Change (NCC), and seeing what they have to say and if there are any possibilities for loaning them some support. Because whether the US intervenes or not, whether Assad falls or not, whether jihadis take over or not—Syria's secular progressives are going to need solidarity from the outside world.

Thanks. Useful overview, especially the information about what is going on in Kurdish communities.

Few things: there is more to the Local Coordination Committees, they form a coalition alongside the others yu ention, they have an English-language website: http://www.lccsyria.org/ Quite useful to get information from Syria.

On de FSA. I think there is more distance between them and the SNC. The latter is an exile organisation, not very much respected within Syria itself, more or less a pawn in Western games. See, for instance, this exposé of some of their spekespeople: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/12/syrian-opposition-do... . The FSA, however, seems to be quite popular: demonstrators chanting their support on the Friday mobilizations quite often. This FSA is a mixed lot, strongly built on local initiative. Like this: ten soldiers breaking out of Assad's military, getting in touch with local opposition activists, forming an resistance unit that calls itself Brigade such-and-so of the FSA. That is basically how the thing evolves.

The FSA is a bunch of Islamic hardliners who are implementing Sharia law and expelling Christians, Alawites, Druze, and Shias from any area they occupy. They want to turn Syrian from a multi-ethnic multi-cultural mozaic into a monolithic Saudi-style religious dictatorship that follows strict adherence to Sharia law with beheadings and stoning.